Keys to the Kingdom

What did Jesus mean when he gave Peter "the keys to the kingdom of heaven"? Did he mean for us to be gatekeepers, deciding who gets in or stays out; or did he mean something else entirely? If you're wondering, this sermon might help to clear things up.

I learn a lot when I travel. This past spring, for example, when I traveled to Scandinavia, I learned a lot about Vikings. I was especially interested to learn about Viking women. It turns out that they had a lot of power in their society, especially within the home; because they were responsible for making sure the family had enough to eat. The women were the ones who doled out the food during each long, hard winter so that it would last until the next year’s harvest; so they kept the keys to the food pantry. (You see one of those keys on the screen right now.) They wore their keys on a necklace as a symbol of their status: the more keys a woman wore, the higher her status. No one was allowed to get into the food without her permission. In fact, if a man got the munchies and raided the pantry in search of a midnight snack, it was legal for his wife to throw him out into the snow and lock the door behind him!

That’s what keys are for, aren’t they? They lock some things in, and they lock other things out. They keep the deed to the house and the title to the car safely in a bank box, and they keep thieves who might want to steal our big-screen TV out of our home. We have all kinds of keys! We have keys to the house, the garage, the car, the church, and sometimes even a storage unit; and we have passwords – electronic keys – on our computers and our smart phones to keep people from poking into our personal business.

We even have keys that Jesus gave us! You heard him give those keys to Peter in the first text from Matthew that I read just a few minutes ago (Matthew 16:13-19). They’re very important keys, too – they’re keys to God’s kingdom. Now, we Protestants believe that when Jesus gave those keys to Peter, he was actually giving them to all Christians. It’s not just the clergy who have the keys to the kingdom of heaven; we all have a set of them. But that raises a crucial question: are we supposed to use those keys to unlock God’s kingdom so that people can go in; or are we supposed to lock the door to keep them out?

That question has been debated since Jesus himself was alive. The Pharisees back in Jesus’ time were pretty sure that their job was to lock people out; but you heard what Jesus had to say about that in the second text that I read (Matthew 23:1-7, 13). “You shut the door to the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces!” he said. “You don’t go in yourselves; but you don’t let anybody else in, either. What good are you, anyway?” Jesus knew why they behaved the way they did. They liked their status as religious professionals. When they put on their fancy robes and marched through the Temple, people called them “Rabbi,” and got out of their way. They even sat at the head table at fancy dinners. Those keys put them on the A-list! Whey, if the keys to God’s kingdom had been physical keys made of metal, they would have worn them around their necks to flaunt their status just like the Viking women did! They weren’t about to unlock the door to God’s kingdom and let other people in, because they wanted to be the most important folks around!

I’m sorry to say that some Christians behave just like the Pharisees did, because they think that God likes them best. So they don’t want to let just anybody into God’s kingdom! Before they unlock that door, they want to make darn sure that someone deserves to be there. They think that they’re entitled to ask questions like “What church to you belong to?” “What do you believe?” and “Have you lived a good life?” and they are all too happy to shut the door to the Kingdom in people’s faces if they don’t like the answers that they hear. But that’s not at all what Jesus had in mind at all! Jesus gave us those keys so that we could unlock the door to God’s kingdom to everyone we meet.

But how do we do that? We begin by showing folks that the Bible’s story of salvation isn’t just something that happened to people long ago and far away. It’s our story, too; and it can be theirs! We need to forget about rules and regulations, and concentrate on showing people where they belong in the story of God’s people! Here’s what I mean. Do you know somebody who doesn’t know where he’s headed in life? Tell him the story of Abraham. God called him out of his comfort zone and told him, “Just take one step at a time, and I’ll show you which direction to take.” We can all relate to that. Maybe you know someone who has really messed up big time, and wants to make a new start; but she’s not really sure that she can ever leave the past behind her. Tell her the story of Peter. When Jesus was on trial for his life, Peter denied that he knew Jesus three times to save his own skin; and he became one of the leaders of the early Christian church. And, of course, the most powerful story is the story of Jesus himself. Do you know someone who has really been dumped on in life? (Maybe that someone is you!) Tell them that life dumped on Jesus, too. He was killed not because he had done anything wrong, but because he stepped on the toes of the politicians and religious leaders; and God raised him from the dead to prove that the powers of the world don’t get the last word! It’s those stories that are the keys to unlock the door of the kingdom of heaven – the miraculous, inspiring, life-changing stores of the Bible.

So go out and get ready to use the keys that Jesus gave us. If they’re a little tarnished from not being used, clean them up. Get out the polish by reading the stories again; and let them speak to you! As you do, I predict that an amazing thing will happen. As you get ready to encourage others through the stories, those stories will encourage you right back. By using your keys to unlock God’s kingdom for other people, the door will swing open even wider for you. Those keys are too important to keep tucked away in your back pocket! Let’s all use them a little more.

Amazing Grace

God's grace is one of the foundations of Christian theology. But what is it, anyway? It's a lot easier to say what it isn't! In this sermon, I offer several images of grace. I hope that one of them will resonate with you.

I distinctly remember my very first preaching class back in seminary. In fact, I remember my very first assignment in that class! We were asked to write a short sermon based on the topic “Our world is a world of darkness, but Jesus is the light of the world.” That sounded easy enough, even when our professor advised us to be sure to include images in our sermons. “Don’t just lecture your congregations,” he told us. “Give them something to see!” And off we went, confident that we would find more than enough images to illustrate both the darkness of the world and the light of Christ. It turned out that we did just fine with the darkness. We came up with all kinds of images: a walk-in closet when its light bulb burns out; a wilderness camp on a moonless night; the absolute blackness of a cave deep underground when the ranger extinguishes the illumination. Oh, we had that darkness nailed. But the light was a whole lot harder. That professor didn’t want us just to add light to our images of the dark closet, the midnight campground, and the black cave. He wanted us to offer an image of the light all by itself. As I remember, very few of us were able to do that. Now, I have nothing but good things to say about that professor. He taught me a lot about preaching, and about ministry in general. But I am not sure that his goal of separating light from darkness was a good one. We only know light, after all, as it contrasts with darkness.

God’s grace is something like that. God’s grace is a cornerstone of our faith. We believe that our God is gracious; and that God’s grace is available to anyone, anytime, anywhere, inside the church or out of it. But that begs the question… what is grace, anyway? If it is part of the foundation of our faith, maybe we should be able to explain it. But much like light and darkness, it is almost impossible to explain grace without talking about what it is not. Grace is the opposite of God’s anger at our foolishness, God’s judgement of our bad behavior, and God’s punishment for what we have done wrong. Grace is God’s forgiveness; but it’s way more than that. Grace not only lets us off the hook, it offers us a way to stay off the hook because our lives are permanently changed.

But how do we picture grace itself? One way to picture grace is as God’s “Get out of jail free” card. Without grace, we all live in a dark dungeon. Sin has put us there, locked the door, and thrown away the key. We didn’t mean to get there, but now we’re stuck. And it’s all we know: a dog-eat-dog place where everyone is greedy, selfish, and hopeless. We couldn’t get ourselves out of that jail in a million years! But God’s grace can let us out. Grace opens the prison door and frees us into a world that we never imagined – a world of sunlight and fresh air; a world where people love and care for one another; a world of joy and beauty. That’s one way of understanding grace.

Or we could picture grace as God’s eraser. Every one of us has written all kinds of messages on the pages of our lives. Some of those messages are loving, compassionate, and wise; and we are proud of them. Others, though, are hateful, judgmental, and foolish; and we would do anything to get rid of them! The good news is that God can pull out grace and erase those messages from our lives. Grace lets us get rid of all the foolishness of our past and start all over again with clean pages. Grace gives us a chance to make a new beginning.

And God’s grace not only allows us to start all over; God’s grace helps us to start all over! Grace is like a road map that guides us down roads that can help us to grow into the image of Christ. Grace helps us to feel God’s presence with us, helps open our eyes to God’s presence around us, and helps us open our ears to what God has to say to us. Grace helps us to stay on the straight and narrow, so that we don’t end up back in the prison of sin, scribbling hateful, foolish messages on the pages of our lives. And when our lives fall down around our ears through no fault of our own, God’s grace is like a transformer, bringing love out of hate, wisdom out of foolishness, and good out of evil. God’s grace is all kinds of things: “Get out of jail free” card, eraser, road map, and transformer; all so that we can be loosed from our past, live fully in the present, and be guided into God’s kingdom in the future.

But maybe the most powerful way to describe God’s grace is to recognize how we feel when we experience it.

Grace is like a red and gold sunrise after a long, dark night.

Grace is filling your lungs with the fresh, cool air of April after being confined all day in a stuffy room.

Grace is rain falling on the dusty earth after a drought.

Grace is the bear hug of a loved one after a long separation.

Grace is the relief that washes over you when you realize that God loves you, and that nothing in heaven or on earth can ever change that.

Grace is the hope that you feel when you realize that you don’t have to be the person that you’ve always been.

Grace is slave-trader turned Anglican clergyman John Newton (who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace”) affirming, “I am not the man I ought to be, I am not the man I wish to be, and I am not the man I hope to be; but by the grace of God, I am not the man I used to be.”

Grace is the way to live a full, joyous life in this world, and an invitation to spend eternity with God in the next.

That’s amazing, astounding, astonishing grace!

And thanks be to God that it is ours!

Known in the Breaking of Bread

This past Sunday was World Communion Sunday. Usually I focus on the similarities that we Christians share; but this year, I chose to focus on the differences. One difference that has split us apart is, sadly, Holy Communion itself. If you're not sure why I say this, reading my sermon might help you understand what I mean.

How do we recognize Jesus Christ in our midst? Is it in the pages of Scripture? Is it through the events in our lives? Is it in the love that others give us? While those are certainly things that can point to the risen Christ, the New Testament is very clear that one of the best ways to recognize Christ is through Holy Communion. On Easter evening, for example, in the story from Luke that you just heard (Luke 24:13-31), the two traveling disciples didn’t recognize Jesus when he joined them on the road to Emmaus. Their conversation with him about the recent events in Jerusalem didn’t open their eyes; and neither did his explanation about how scripture was fulfilled in his death and resurrection. It was only when he broke bread and gave it to them that they recognized the stranger who had accompanied them all day as the risen Lord.

But it is a sad irony that the things that should unite us are often the very things that drive us apart; and Holy Communion is a glaring example of that truth. Like a wedge jammed into the middle of Christian communities, communion has divided more people than it has united. In the early days of the Reformation, for example, church reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin sat down at the dinner table to see if they might be able to work together. They agreed on almost everything: church leadership, church government, and even baptism. But when they got to communion, everything fell apart like Humpty Dumpty; and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t get them back together again. They parted friends, but not colleagues. Luther’s legacy is the Lutheran Church, while Calvin’s is the Presbyterian Church. Two denominations resulted instead of one, because the sacrament that should have united Luther and Calvin drove them apart.

Communion is still a force for division. Even today, as we sit down at the table of Christ together with millions of others around the world, some people will be suspicious of Christians who don’t celebrate Holy Communion exactly the same way that they do. The folks who come to the communion table and kneel to receive the bread and cup will wonder about the piety of the folks who remain in their pews and pass plates of bread and cups. Those who drink wine will sneer at those who drink grape juice and wonder why they aren’t being “scriptural.” And those who receive communion every week, like our brothers and sisters in the Disciples of Christ, will look on the ones who receive communion only infrequently and wonder about the strength of their commitment to Jesus. How sad. That isn’t what Jesus had in mind at all!

I recently read a memoir that was written by Rev. David J. Huegel, a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). His thoughts go to the heart of the division that we Christians have created around the Lord’s Table. I will let him speak for himself as I read a portion of that memoir.

In my last week serving as a Volunteer under Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ, I attended the annual communion service at the cathedral church of the Pentecostal Church of Chile in a small city there. It was a memorable experience for me. The problem was that they did several things wrong.

There is no doubt that the service, held on August 18, the national holiday of St. Peter and St. Paul, is a big deal. When we arrived more than an hour early, parking spaces were filling up with charter buses bringing people in from small churches of the entire countryside around the city. Extra seats had been set up in the warehouse that serves as a church way out into the open patio that normally serves as a parking area. By the time the service began, it was standing room only. But something in me rebels at the idea of a communion service being such a big deal. Just the idea of an annual communion service is unpalatable to this old Disciples minister who wants his Lord’s Supper every week. [Note: the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) celebrate Holy Communion every Sunday.] You shouldn’t have to charter a bus to receive communion.

After everybody got settled and the choir warmed us up, the first major order of business was baptisms. The Pentecostal Church of Chile baptizes children in its regular weekly services. If adults wish to be baptized, however, that is not only allowed but encouraged at the annual communion service. The problem is that almost all of them had been baptized before! For Pentecostals, this is no big deal. You can be baptized whenever you have a significant spiritual experience. But to this good Disciples of Christ pastor who believes in one baptism per lifetime, all that rebaptism just seemed to be – well, if not wrong, then at least very much out of order!  

When we finally arrived at Communion, the Bishop gave the words of institution, and then every ordained and lay leader was assigned to serve the elements at the nine communion tables all around the building. The lay leader who was with me gave bread to everybody, no questions asked; so I, too, gave the cup to everyone. And that was another problem. The table was TOO open, in my opinion; because the cup is literally shared. Everyone drinks from the same cup, regardless of age, appearance, or medical condition. Only my wipe of the cup with a constantly changing succession of fresh napkins provided any kind of barrier to whatever germs might be lurking. “Lord, I will drink this cup,” I thought, “just keep me healthy!” And then, when the adults and children been served, all the babies and toddlers were brought forward to be blessed—using the communion elements! Some children had to be coaxed to taste the wine; and babies were spoon fed wine with tiny baby spoons.

Things weren’t done the way they were supposed to be done – at least, not in my opinion. I was sure that they were not done the way the Lord Jesus would have done them if he had been there, either. Surely, he would have insisted that everyone use those little, sanitized, prepackaged communion cups with the wafer attached. But people were so moved! I have never seen such weeping and radiant joy at communion! “This is crazy!” I thought. And I felt from somewhere God’s reply, “And I love it!”

Before I had begun to participate in worship that day, I had prayed that the Spirit would examine me. The Spirit used the people to do just that. The Spirit broke my own critical spirit with the passionate outpouring of love for the Lord that I witnessed in each face to whom I said, “This cup is the new covenant in Jesus’s blood . . .” Yup, all of us are sinners. We all do things the wrong way. And we are all forgiven by the extravagant love of God. May we all love just as extravagantly!

In just a moment, Jesus will invite you to join him at his table. You will recognize him in the breaking of the bread. And millions of other Christians will recognize him, too, whatever their particular communion traditions might be. Common cup or individual cups; bread from a common loaf or pre-cubed for your convenience; sitting in a pew or kneeling at an altar rail – Christ is present with all of us. Thanks be to God!

Note: I have shortened and edited Rev. Huegel’s story for use in this sermon. You can read his full account at http://www.globalministries.org/communion_in_chile_10_10_2014_1357